Members of the University
Research Council and representatives of the
Office of General Counsel have revised the University’s Copyright Policy.The full Council discussed and approved the
revisions. The policy now will be
reviewed by the Provost’s Office, the Dean’s Council, and the Faculty Senate.

Overall, the policy more clearly delineates the
rights and responsibilities of the faculty, students, the University, etc.,
than had the previous version.The
policy has been revised in the following areas:

·It more clearly defines the rights of the faculty
vis-à-vis the University.The default
position within the policy is faculty ownership of the copyright; previously,
this position had not been well defined.

·Terms such as “works-for-hire”, “copyrightable
works”, and “scholarly works” are now explicitly defined in an appendix.The Copyright Committee, which will help
adjudicate ownership disputes, also is now defined in the appendix.

·References to potentially copyrightable material
have been updated to include newer, technologically advanced media,
particularly in areas related to classroom technology.

OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

Fran Connell from the Office of
Technology Management (OTM) discussed technology licensing at the
University.The Bayh
Dole Act awards to universities ownership of inventions that are created via
federally funded programs.However, the
Act requires universities to actively strive to license these inventions and
retains for the government licensing rights in these inventions.OTM coordinates the process
through which licensing occurs.A
technology transfer committee evaluates the inventions to determine whether
they are patentable.The committee must
determine whether the invention is novel, non-obvious, and useful.In other words, a description of the
invention cannot previously have been published, the invention should not be
obvious to the average person with the inventor’s background and experience,
and at least one specific use for the invention must be known.

MISCELLANEOUS

The Department of Homeland
Security’s Advanced Research Projects Agency is hosting a series of information
sessions for industry and academia.Representatives of the University are attending these events.

The University is a member of a
consortium that addresses issues related to national preparedness.This consortium, entitled the Keystone
Alliance, includes Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania State
University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The University of Pittsburgh,
West Virginia University, CarnegieMellonUniversity, and
several private firms are working on issues related to fossil fuels.They are focusing their efforts on the
National Energy Technology Lab.

Bianca Bernstein from the
National Science Foundation will visit the University of Pittsburgh on
January 15 of next year.She will be
hosting a seminar for faculty from CarnegieMellonUniversity, DuquesneUniversity, and
the University of Pittsburgh.

The Institutional Review Board (IRB)
is discussing how to address differences between social science research and
medical research.Social science
research often minimally affects human subjects, so some of the reporting
requirements potentially could be streamlined.